These last couple of days in Argentina have been amazing! There is no other way I would have liked to spend them. Every since I got my breath taken away by a stunning performance of the Argentina born tango, I have wanted to try this intimate ballroom dance. This last Thursday, I finally had my chance.

Testing the waters of TANGO!

Our group and the other program of exchange students went to a beautiful ballroom to meet for our first tango lesson. We were first told to circle up and watch as the instructors walked slowly though an eight count. Next, it was our turn to try. As happens many times, the girls outnumbered the guys significantly. I went through the steps with one partner a couple of times and then would pair up with someone else to give them a chance. After we were fairly comfortable with this first phrase, they stopped us to add another phrase with a little twist at the end (and by twist I mean kick). Our choreography ended with the lady delivering the trade mark kick of the tango between the gentlemen’s legs. As I was practicing correct form, I got corrected being told I looked like I was playing air guitar. Everyone found this comment amusing. When I did achieve correct form the lady instructor told me to wait right there as she rushed across the dance floor and gave a quick kick between my legs. We continued to practice among ourselves until we were almost out of time. They called couple of people up to show off their newly acquired skills in front of the whole group, but unfortunately I was not chosen. After the students, the instructors took their position to show off their skills. Their performance was fantastic and a great way to top off the lesson.

Gaining confidence and command of the dance floor!

The next day, I had made plans to go to a fund raiser with one of the other students. There are a lot of stray dogs that wonder the streets of Rosario. This fund raiser was to give food and shelter to some of these dogs. The fund raiser was a tea bingo. I thought that sounded delightful and asked if I could join. I met her at her house and we started to walk over. The place the bingo was at sat right on the river. She had the name of the place as we looked for this center. She said that it would be a bigger building, but when we finally found the name of the place, the sign was above a staircase with no building. We joked as we went down the stairs that this would the stair way down to our death because it was so sketchy. When we reached the bottom of the staircase there were a couple of mean setting and asked use what we wanted. It looked liked people would pay them to fish off the dock there. Once we asked if they knew where the event was, they automatically pointed us in the right direction. We continued through a long dark room until we finally saw some people in bright orange shirts happy to see use. We went up to a lady setting next to a large poster with a lot of dogs and a money box. We got our tickets and went in to find a table. There was an enthusiastic worker that spoke a little bit of English. She made sure we were comfortable.

Tea Time!

We started to drink our tea and went and got our slice of pie. Eventually, they started to hand out bingo card, but these bingo cards did not look like the ones I was used to in the States. The cards did not have to word “BINGO” anywhere on them. Instead, they had eight columns and six rectangles. Each rectangle was made up by 4X8 boxes. Various boxes were blacked out. These were all free spaces. Every card had every number from 1-90 on it. One through ten was on the far left and then the rows of ten went up from left to right. The first person that got a line won a prize. Then the first person to get a black out in one of the rectangles wins the game. The real fun actually happened before the game actually started.

What’s behind the paper?

There were candies in a bag that people were baying for 5 pesos each. Mary decided that she would go ahead and buy four because it was for a good cause. Each of the candies had a number on it. She asked what the numbers where for and one of the workers grabbed them from us saying they are a gift, so we supposed they were gone to the dogs. Then she came back shortly with four little presents for us. This was a pleasant surprise, so we enjoyed every little bit our each present. People around us went crazy for all of these little gifts. We quickly found out that there was no limit to what could be behind the wrapping paper. A woman sitting at our table held up a tong, so that made things more interesting really quickly as I slowly opened our last couple of present. On that same note, I was the only male at this event besides a little boy and one of the workers. I really enjoyed this tea that felt very much to me what I would imagine a shower to be like. The next day, I was able to take the girls to a stereotypical event for guys.

Game day baby!

Saturday night was easily one of the craziest events yet. We decided to go to one of Rosario’s soccer team’s match. When I told one of the university staff I was going to buy tickets, they said, “In Argentina, soccer is not a sport. It is a religion.” We all met Saturday afternoon to catch taxis over to the soccer stadium. To groups of us quickly managed to get taxis, but there were a couple guys that got cut off from us. We waited at the stadium for half an hour and then called them. They said they were just one there way. We waited another half an hour and called again. This time they had just been dropped off, but in a different place than we were. We met up with them and headed for the stadium. Signs of game day were everywhere. They whole area was a sea of the team’s yellow and blue colored gear and flags. People where car pooling by filling the back of a truck as full as possible or cramming in buses until no more people could fit. In that case, people started to sit on the rough. Everyone was egger to get to the game. When we finally reached that stadium, there were a lot of police. A line of men in riot gear watched us seriously as we walked to get patted down. Once we got pass the security check, we scanned our tickets and head to our seats. It took a little while to find where we were sitting, but we still had plenty of time to enjoy the buzzing atmosphere and people already cheering. We went to buy a pop and hot dog for very cheap compared to the steep prices of refreshments at U.S. stadiums. There were no ushers like in the stadiums I am used to either, and when we returned to our seats we discovered assigned seats turned out to be like many rules in Argentina, just a guideline. We stayed in the general area of our seats as the excitement started to grow. People were collectively yelling cheers before the team even touched the field. When the team did come out, the place exploded almost literally. People throw confetti and lit smoke bombs. The place erupted with chants in unison just organically. No one needed to call out or lead. Everyone just knew and felt. There were signs that said, “If you don’t feel, you don’t understand.” I may not have felt the connection to the team, but I felt the energy that the fans gave off.

Learning the “religion” from the locals.

The game started and the other team score in the first three minutes. This did not even put in the energy of the fans. If anything, this upset them into cheering louder. The score remained the same as the game went into half time. Usually many people in the states would take this time to grab a cold beer. Not in this stadium. All you could buy was water. My friend said if they need people with riot gear to control fans without alcohol, they do not need to put fuel on the flames. This was an excellent point and incredible to actually see played out. Despite the lack of alcohol, the fans never let down. They continued to be crazy. Some sat on rafters or others banged drums, and all joined in a constant cheer. At the end of half time I wanted a picture, so I stood at the railing with my Messi Argentina jersey one. Someone grabbed me and asked me why I had on a Messi jersey. When he realized I didn’t really understand, he wanted nothing to do with me, which was better for me. Another guy next to me was very nice and explained the Messi played for the rival team of Rosario Central. I knew that Messi was from Rosario, but did not know he actually played for Newell’s Old Boys, which is the other team in Rosario and the rivals of the team we were there to watch. I casually put on my jacket to enjoy the rest of the game. In the last five minute, the crowd when crazy. People lit flares and yelled, but Rosario Central did not score. This lead the crowd to whistle loudly. Not a happy whistle, but a mean spiteful one the echoed through the stadium. The immediately started to cuss out their own players accompanied by some flying objects. Eventually things died down after the team was in the locker room and we went to leave the stadium. Actually getting out proved to be a harder task than anticipated and the wall of people stood stagnant. I joked to one of my friends that this meant if there was a fire, we would be in really big trouble. There was finally a steady slow flow and people pushed up against one another. We made sure we were in contact with someone from our group, so we did not get split up. The streets were literally full of people. There was no chance of getting a taxi, so we started walking. We continued walking all the way home. We stopped at an ice cream shop about two hours later. Then on my way back to my house I saw lighting.

Going out with a bang!

I’ll miss you Argentina!

Cain